


Decorating Debacle

by JA_Authoress



Series: Muggle Mishaps [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas 1978, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Peter's getting suspicious, jily, obviously, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 12:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5374682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JA_Authoress/pseuds/JA_Authoress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>December 6, 1978.<br/>Remus told Sirius to wait until he finished work to start decorating.  Naturally, Sirius gets started right away, and enlists the help of fellow Marauders, James and Peter.</p><p>"You should have waited until you had actual adult supervision."</p><p>"I wanted it to be a surprise! Want me to give you the tour?"</p><p>“Sure, let’s see how this turned out.  Nothing’s on fire, so it hasn’t gone completely pear-shaped yet.”</p><p>“That was an hour ago, I cleaned it up though, don’t worry.”</p><p>“It looks like Santa himself vomited all the Christmas cheer for London in our flat.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Decorating Debacle

December 6, 1978

It was a very long day. Remus shuffled along the sidewalk towards his flat.

Normally, he’d pop into an alleyway and Apparate closer to their building, but he was far too tired, and feared he might actually splinch himself (and he was quite proud of his zero splinching-incident track record).

He smiled into his scarf at the memory of yesterday. Sure, it had been stressful and one of the most hectic days of being Sirius’s friend, but it was worth it. Even if he’d never actually get all the glitter out of his hair or carpet. Seeing how happy, and seriously, Sirius was taking this muggle Christmas made him happy by association. 

Decorating wasn’t finished yet either. There was still the actual decoration process. 

Remus woke Sirius up this morning at 4am to remind him to wait until he got home to attempt any decorating.

With any luck, he’d still be able to retain some of his sanity by the end of the day. He had work again tomorrow morning, so he had to keep at least some sanity. Keeping all of it, though, was an impossible task with friends like the Marauders.

Speaking of Marauders, he knew that hair anywhere.

“Oh, afternoon, Lily!” 

“Remus!” Lily looked oddly surprised to see him, even though she was the one who was walking up the walkway to his apartment building. “Did you step out for a minute or something?”

Now, it was Remus’s turn to take on an odd expression. 

“No, I just got off work about twenty minutes ago. I walked home today.”

Lily paled. Remus was almost afraid to ask, but: “Is something wrong?”

“Sirius Flooed James this morning, said you were ready to decorate the flat, said it was going to be a surprise for me, so I wasn’t allowed to come until half twelve.”

“Oh Merlin’s beard.” Remus paled as well. “I’ve been out of the house since 4am.”

Now, they were quite sensible about this horrific turn of events from what had been a nice start to the afternoon. They still moved as though there were Death Eaters hot on their tails, but they were rather sensible about it. No matter how badly they wanted to Apparate up to the ninth floor.

“Whatever has happened in there, I still love him.”

Now, who said that exactly, I can’t be sure. I am quite sure that Lily giggled behind her scarf, though.

There was a wreath on their door now. It was definitely Sarah’s work. They hadn’t made anything nearly as nice the other day.

Preparing himself for the worst, he unlocked the door and walked in.

“Oh.”

“My.”

“Merlin.”

“Moony! You’re home early. Evans, you’re right on time.” Sirius came bounding out of the kitchen. He was wearing one of Remus’s Christmas jumpers, getting further into the Christmas spirit, it seemed. It was a touch too big on him though. Remus did have a good two inches on him. Also, being a werewolf did help with his natural physic, too.

“Padfoot, I thought I made myself perfectly clear—”

“At four in the bloody morning, mate! I didn’t realize you got up at that ungodly hour.” Sirius had the decency to look appalled. “I wanted to surprise you with the finished product, because I knew you’d be dead tired when you got home.”

Remus tried to stay mad, but it was impossible. It was always impossible.

“You shouldn’t have let me think Remus was watching the lot of you,” Lily scolded. “Where’s my fiancé? He should have known better.”

“He’s in the living room, putting the finishing touches on the tree with Wormtail.”

“Ah, Peter, there’s the responsible adult I was looking for,” Lily muttered sarcastically, stalking into the living room.

“Hullo Lily, love of my life, I can explain.” 

Remus ignored the rest of the conversation explaining what exactly went through James’s fluffy head.

“You could have waited until you had actual adult supervision,” Remus commented, following Sirius back into the kitchen. There were still a few decorations that were left to go on the tree. 

The kettle whistled.

“Like I said, I wanted it to be a surprise!” Sirius set about making tea for the Marauders who braved the muggle Christmas decoration battle field. He also got down two more cups for the innocent bystanders who walked in on it. “You’re always doing stuff for me, Moony, I’m just trying to help you out a bit.”

“Ta, Padfoot.”

“Want me to give you the tour?”

“Sure, let’s see how this turned out. Nothing’s on fire, so it hasn’t gone completely pear-shaped yet.”

“That was an hour ago, I cleaned it up though, don’t worry.”

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose, following Sirius and his levitating teacups into the living room. He stopped dead at the entrance.

“Oh, wow, Padfoot… I…” 

If Sirius hadn’t used his favourite teacup, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have dropped it. 

“I know, right? Bloody brilliant is what it is.”

“It looks like Santa himself vomited all the Christmas cheer for London in our flat.”

“Wormtail did the lot by the bookshelf. Prongs did the fireplace—Look at our stockings! I concentrated most of my effort on the tree, as well as the taxing job of general overseer of everything.”

“Peter cheated with the village on the bookshelf, he charmed it to snow.” Lily commented, sipping delicately on her tea. She was sitting on James’s lap in Sirius’s usual chair next to the Christmas tree. Apparently she had forgiven him quite quickly. It looked as though James’s hands had once been covered in green and red glitter, then had been run through his hair to fluff it up like he always did. 

Remus wondered if he had looked in the mirror yet. It was a rather good look for him.

“God dammit Wormtail, I said no magic!”

“Well, at least it didn’t explode!” Peter defended himself. He was sporting a fetching gold glitter smear from his left nostril to the back of his head, cementing part of his hair to his skull. “If it had exploded, I would have fixed it, you know that.”

“I’m trying to create a muggle Christmas masterpiece, your charmed snow village doesn’t fit.”

“I think it’s adorable.” Remus wasn’t lying either. It was the cutest setup he’d ever seen. “Good job, Wormtail.”

“Cheers, Moony. At least someone in this flat appreciates art.”

“Fine, Moony likes it, so we’re keeping it.” Sirius may or may not have pouted a bit. “What do you think of the tree?”

“It’s very bright.” Remus squinted at it a bit. He could just make out the copious amounts of decorations he, Lily, and Sirius had made the other day. There were also some extra ones that looked like they were still drying. James and Peter must have gotten jealous and made some themselves.

Lily waved her wand at it. Remus automatically flinched and hid his face with the teacup. Lucky, the only thing that happened was the lights dimmed to an appropriate amount.

“Brilliant, Evans! More useful than Prongs, I’d say.”

“Oi! Who decorated your fireplace with every Christmasy fibre of my being? I bled on that fireplace. I bled for your sodding muggle Christmas traditions.”

Sirius ignored him.

“It looks brilliant, Prongs.”

“Thank you Moony, at least I’ve got one sane friend here.”

“Oi!”

“You don’t count as sane, Wormtail, have you told Moony why there’re scorch marks on his ceiling yet?”

“There are scorch marks on my ceiling?” Remus looked up. There were indeed scorch marks. They were in the suspicious form of a deer, possibly a reindeer. “You know what? I don’t want to know.”

“Evans! Did you bring your muggle camera?”

“Of course I did.” Lily never forgot anything.

“We need to capture this moment for next year.”

“I’m wearing my bakery jumper, and I’ve got glitter and flour in my hair.”

“That’ll be something to tell the grandchildren some day.” 

Lily squeaked a bit. James rolled his eyes. Peter looked between Remus and Sirius suspiciously. Remus sighed. 

Sirius directed everyone over to the tree.

“Evans! Please set up your muggle contraption.”

“You know, you aught to buy one yourself, you know. Archive your days as Death Eater fighting, Christmas decorating badasses for your grandchildren.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Evans.”

Lily set up her camera.

“We’ve got ten seconds!” she ran back to James and jumped onto his lap. He wrapped his arms lovingly around her.

Sirius threw an arm around Remus’s waist. Remus automatically put his arm around his best friend’s shoulders. They looked at each other and laughed.

Peter laid seductively in front of them all.

Click.

**Author's Note:**

> These things are slowly getting longer and longer... 
> 
> Please leave a kudos/comment if you liked it! Subscribe if you want to be notified of more of Sirius's muggle mishaps.


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